Zero Ambitions Podcast

Is there a collaboration problem in retrofit within the social housing sector? That was the premise for this conversation with Rafe Bertram, an architect and retrofit expert—appearing in a personal capacity—who was very surprised when I posed the question because he's found collaboration to be a strength in the sector, at least in London.

In the end it led to a conversation about what he's learned from the experiences he's had working on retrofits in the social housing sector, in his community, and even doing big flashy Apple stores.

The most interesting bit though is the strategy he's using to reduce the cost of retrofit, with his theory of reactive planning. It's an approach that takes a systematic integrated asset management approach and adds strategic opportunism into the mix in a way that enables him to piggyback essential works, like roof replacement, and use them as a catalyst for getting into a building to do the sustainability stuff that's usually a lower priority.


Notes from the show
More links to articles about green building, favourable finance, and better valuations:


**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this podcast, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.
  • Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)
  • Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sorts
  • Subscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)
  • Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon Upfront
  • Join ACAN
  • Join the AECB 
  • Join the IGBC
  • Check out Her Retrofit Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women



**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**



What is Zero Ambitions Podcast?

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment.

We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors.

Hosted by Jeff Colley and Dan Hyde, publishers of Passive House Plus magazine (UK and Ireland), the podcast has now grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners.

The consultancy specialises in defensible sustainability communications. We create the strategy that makes built environment leaders stand out, enabling them to occupy positions that are distinct and defensible.

As with the podcast itself, we help organisations to communicate about what they do and the value that they offer. Usually, this means strategies to change a conversation from price to value and how to futureproof an offer with evidence that makes its claims watertight.

If you're a leader, or want to become one, we help you to make sense of where you stand in your sector, how to improve your positioning, how to communicate this to the market you operate in, and how to highlight the difference between you and your peer group.

If you can engage your value chain by speaking about what matters to them, you can educate your key stakeholders and turn them into evangelists for your cause.

Book a ‘ZAP Defensibility Audit’, but brace yourself
- Uncover value and opportunities that you may 
not have recognised
- Find out if your sustainability claims are defensible
- Find out if your claims are too meek
- Change the conversation from price to value